PEP, March 2008: The real us: Black History Month at DC 37

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

During District Council 37’s 28th annual celebration of Black History Month, which began Feb. 1, the Black History Committee paid tribute to the 400 Africans whose remains lay at the African Burial Ground in lower Manhattan.

“The Real Us, Preserving Our Heritage,” was the committee’s theme this year as it honored those 18th-century Africans, mainly children, who toiled in Manhattan marshlands, built New Amsterdam and were used as human shields by the Dutch against Native Americans.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony featured traditional drumming by the Djembe Orchestra and the classically trained family trio, JoSunJari. [This article highlights events held Feb. 1-12; later programs will be covered in the April PEP.]

SSEU Local 371’s event Feb. 1 featured live jazz, a dramatic reading inspired by events in Iraq and guest speaker Amiri Baraka, who said the energy of the Democratic primaries should be used to make real change in America’s political system.

“With a Black man and a woman as the top Democratic candidates, we’re witnessing history,” said Local 983 President Mark Rosenthal. The local’s Feb. 5 event featured the youthful Dancers & Drummers of Africa, Inc. and the P. Town Players.

On Feb. 6 Health Services Local 768 presented poetry and the spoken word by members Beatrice Everett, Zelma Brown and Jerry Hippolito.

“The labor movement is stronger because the NAACP used legal strategies to protect workers’ rights,” said Local 2627 speaker Laura D. Blackburne, a retired New York Supreme Court judge who began her legal career at DC 37 and served the NAACP for 15 years. The local also showed a video of the late Congress member Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in his last television interview with Gil Noble.

Civil rights and labor
Gospel rocked DC 37 Feb. 8 at an event co-sponsored by Municipal Hospital Employees Local 420 and Court, County & Department of Probation Employees Local 1070 that featured Natalie Wilson, Lance Williams and Keith “Wonderboy” Johnson. Local Presidents Carmen Charles and Clifford Koppelman, who is also DC 37’s secretary, honored the memories of former Local 420 Secretary Louise DeBow and former Local 2054 President Joan Reed with a moment of silence.

Muhammad Drammeh, a 9-year-old student at Bronx Leadership School, drew a standing ovation fromLocal 1407 members Feb. 11 as he recited Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech with great passion and lilting cadences.

City Council member Darlene Mealy, a former Transit worker who won a City Council seat in 2005 with support from DC 37, was on the Local 1407 program with Congress member Yvette D. Clarke, the keynote speaker, who reminded union activists to teach their children the truth and to teach them about the labor struggle.

Veronica Montgomery-Costa, president of DC 37 and Local 372, addressed the Local 420 gathering. “Since Dr. King there has not been a black leader to create the passion needed to correct the current groundswell of conservatism,” she said. The current conservative Supreme Court intends to wipe away union rights, civil rights and affirmative action, she noted.

“The Black church has always been a refuge, teaching us that we are all equal before God,” Montgomery-Costa said. “We need to learn from our past and organize and mobilize the working class, unions and the African American community so we do not squander this year’s opportunity.”